Verizon Wireless to Pay $7B Dividend to Co-Owners

Verizon wants to acquire Vodafone's stake in the joint venture

In documents filed with regulators on Monday, Verizon Wireless said it will pay its co-owners a hefty dividend.

The largest U.S. wireless carrier, which is jointly owned by Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Britain’s Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD), will pay its stakeholders a $7 billion dividend on June 25. Verizon will receive $3.85 billion. The remaining $3.15 billion will go to Vodafone, Bloomberg notes.

Earlier this year, Verizon executives had signaled that such a dividend might not be paid this year. Verizon owns 55% of Verizon Wireless and has reportedly long been interested in buying Vodafone’s stake in the business. The move was seen as a applying financial pressure to Vodafone to persuade it to sell its stake.

Last month, reports circulated that Verizon was partnering with AT&T (NYSE:T) to launch a $245 billion takeover bid for Vodafone. Under that deal, Verizon would get all of Verizon Wireless and AT&T would purchased Vodafone’s overseas operations.